GU to expand its start-up incubator To increase seating capacity from 100 to 250, to operate 24x7 Ahmedabad: Gujarat University will expand the capacity of its start-up incubator arm Gujarat University Student Entrepreneurship Council (GUSEC) in about three months. This includes increasing seating capacity from 100 to around 250 and allowing start-ups to operate round the clock. It will also set up GUSEC extension centres at 25 GU affiliated institutions.Set up in July 2016, GUSEC uses only one floor of its premises and is incubating over 40 start-ups, of which over 20 start-ups are on campus. It will construct an additional floor and use the basement facilities also for accommodating more start-ups. Start-ups function from 8:00 am to till 12 o’clock in the midnight. Soon it plans to operate round the clock. “After expansion, it will be kind of one stop destination, providing space of day-to-day working, meetings, conferences and all the associated activities. We have also partnered with about 30 mentors who will handhold the start-ups and it will get mentors at each stage of the journey,” said Himanshu Pandya, in-charge vice chancellor of Gujarat University. It also plans to offer services like guidance in patents, trademark, copyright, mentors and even research facilities free of cost to its incubatees. GUSEC is recognised as a nodal Institution by the Gujarat government, through which government funds are channelised to the start-ups. So far, it has enabled about 50 start-ups to get government funds under the Start-up Assistance Scheme of the state government. Pandya informed that about 20 per cent of its incubatees have started making money. A couple of them have set up their on offices on commercial basis. Gujarat University also plans to replicate the GUSEC model at its affiliated institutions at different locations. Keyur Dhandeo @keyurbdhandeo